My Rare Limb Difference Made Me Go Viral | BORN DIFFERENT - video Dailymotion

Truly

A YOUNG MAN who has declared himself 'Armless Freak' has become an internet sensation despite being born with missing limbs due to a rare genetic disorder. Colby Van Voorhis, 24, from Georgetown, New York, was born with thrombocytopenia-absent radius syndrome (TAR) - leaving him with no arm bones and without any knee joints. Colby recently decided to sign up to the video sharing platform, TikTok, and his profile has attracted over 200K followers after videos of him cracking jokes have gone viral. Standing at 4ft 1", Colby didn’t let his rare condition, which affects fewer than 1 in 100,000 births, define him - and has instead started embracing the things that set him apart.

Transcript

00:00I was born without arm limbs and knee joints.

00:03The syndrome affects about 1 in 100,000 births,

00:05so it's pretty rare.

00:07I'm roughly 4'1", I mean, that's what I tell myself, at least.

00:11If I had knees, I'd be normal height.

00:13I'm always cracking jokes about not having arms and legs,

00:16and I know that when I go out, people are going to stare and look,

00:19but so what?

00:20I know I wouldn't have the kind of positivity

00:23that I have on life if it wasn't for this disability.

00:30My name's Colby, and I was born without arm limbs

00:35and without knee joints.

00:36The name of the syndrome is TAR thrombocytopenia

00:39with absent radius, and it affects about 1 in 100,000 births,

00:43so it's pretty rare.

00:49I'm roughly 4'1", I mean, that's what I tell myself, at least.

00:54If I had knees, I'd be normal height.

00:58Right off from the bat, I mean, I realized that,

01:00oh, I don't have arms and legs.

01:02That was different.

01:03I see myself as just a regular person,

01:05so I want to do everything that anyone else is doing.

01:10Is this supposed to be hot today?

01:12I think it is, actually.

01:15I'm fully independent to bathing myself.

01:17I'm able to cook for myself, dress myself.

01:20Adaptation-wise, I just have, like, a dressing stick that helps me.

01:23If I have to use something to reach, I can use a chair,

01:26or just figure it out in just different ways.

01:29When he was really young, they were trying to figure out

01:31how Kobe could go from line to sitting,

01:33and the therapist had no idea how to do that,

01:36and he managed on his own,

01:38and that was a big key to me that let him figure it out.

01:41We've always said to him,

01:42don't tell me what you can't do.

01:43Show me what you can do.

01:46I'm one of eight adopted children,

01:49and we're all adopted.

01:50We all have different, various backgrounds.

01:52When we first saw Kobe, he was absolutely beautiful.

01:56Couldn't ask for a more perfect baby in our eyes.

02:01He had the full-headed, curly hair, and he was, he was cute.

02:07Ooh.

02:09I think he was six weeks old when we brought him home.

02:12It was a learning process, but basically,

02:14we realized, you know, he's going to have a full life.

02:17He's going to do what everybody else does.

02:20When I was younger, growing up, in my family itself,

02:23I was never excluded.

02:25But when I started going to school,

02:27I realized, all right, yeah, I'm not like the other kids.

02:31And as a teenager, he, I think,

02:33basically just wanted to fit in with everybody else

02:35and not be looked at as so different.

02:39He's very outgoing.

02:41He's never let anybody define him but himself.

02:44Let's go.

02:45Come again.

02:48Larry, come here, buddy.

02:49It took time to become confident.

02:52Hey, boy.

02:53But I just, I accepted myself.

02:55Yes, I'm not the same as other people, but, I mean, who is?

02:58I know I wouldn't be in the position I am.

03:00I wouldn't have the kind of positivity that I have on life

03:04if it wasn't for this disability.

03:06I downloaded TikTok just for the fun of it.

03:10And I thought, eh, why not?

03:11Let's try one.

03:12Let's make one.

03:13And it exploded.

03:15It got like five million views.

03:17And I said, well, I guess that's good feedback.

03:19So I decided, well, let's start making more.

03:21It's just been going crazy.

03:24A lot of my videos are a lot of jokes regarding my disability.

03:28By making jokes and making these silly videos that I'm having fun

03:31and I'm accepting myself, I'm just doing it just to have fun,

03:34just to show people that I'm just like anyone else.

03:37It's blown up a little bit.

03:38It's got within, what, an hour, it's got about 2,600 views.

03:42Not too bad.

03:43Normally, if I get about 1,000 for the first hour or so each hour,

03:47then I'm pretty happy with it.

03:49I get a wide range of comments.

03:51I get ones that are not really appropriate.

03:53I get ones that are very nice and encouraging.

03:56You might be nervous to ask me in person.

03:58People are more willing to ask questions about my disability

04:01in the comment section than they would in real life.

04:04TikTok is definitely as your own.

04:07I think beauty is loving yourself and just living your life.

04:11Every time I go out, I always get like the stares,

04:14the finger point, and it's kind of got to block out that stuff

04:17and you can't really let it affect you.

04:19Colby's pretty good with this disability.

04:21It's like he doesn't even have one really for him.

04:24We're both a piece, yeah.

04:25A lot of people use excuses and he never does.

04:28People say, like, your brother, like, he's a big inspiration to me.

04:32He's an inspiration to a lot of people.

04:34When I look in the mirror, I see myself as me living my life the best I can.

04:39The biggest thing that I would like people to know about really any disability

04:43is that I'm just like you.

04:45It might take me a little longer or a different way,

04:48but I am just like anyone else.

05:04I'm just like you.

05:05I'm just like you.

05:06I'm just like an inspiration.

05:07I'm just like, yeah.

05:08I'm just like, where are you?

05:09I'm just like a little bit of things.

05:11And I'm just like, what do you see here?

05:13Where are you?

05:14I'm just like, what do you think?

05:15And it's nice to be in the way.

05:17This is really, how do you know what I mean?

05:19I don't know.

05:20But I'm just like, in this case I don't know about the color thing.

05:22So I don't know about the color.

05:26You don't know that there are any different colors,

05:28but I like them.

05:29I think that's the colors that are looking for.

05:30I'm just like, what?

05:31How do you be in the color?

My Rare Limb Difference Made Me Go Viral | BORN DIFFERENT

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